Yomi
たまにきず
Rōmaji
tama ni kizu
Type
idiom
Literal Meaning
a scratch on a (crystal) ball
Meaning
one flaw in a thing/person that is perfect otherwise
Additional Info
It’s often used when you talk about one flaw in something/someone that looks almost perfect. For some reason, きず is often written in katakana, but hiragana is also fine. In kanji, it’s written as “玉に瑕”.
It’s the antonymous concept of “saving grace” in English (for which Japanese doesn’t have a word or phrase).
Example
ニンニクはとても美味しいけど、口が臭くなるのが玉にきずだ
Garlic is very tasty, but its only flaw is that it makes your mouth smelly
この鞄はオシャレだし沢山ものが入って便利だけど、少し重たいのが玉に瑕だ
This bag is fashionable and also useful as you can put a lot of things in it, but one flaw is it’s a bit heavy.
